Middle Ages 1200
Europe around 1200 was an age of cathedrals and castles. Populations were growing and towns expanding, papal authority was close to its peak, and knights set out on campaign to the Holy Land, Iberia and the Baltic.
The age at a glance
The basic unit of politics was the bond between lord and vassal. Kings ruled vast lands in name, but in practice they had to rely on the loyalty of their dukes and counts. The game's vassal system and the opinion of court nobles are a simplified rendering of this structure.
In the west, the Angevin Empire, in which the English king held half of France, was beginning to totter, while the Holy Roman Empire was torn between emperor, pope and princes. In Iberia, the Christian kingdoms faced the Almohad Caliphate. In the east, Byzantium was in decline and the principalities of Rus were fighting among themselves.
Major events in the game
- The Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire In 1204 the crusaders, who should have been bound for the Holy Land, sacked Constantinople and founded the Latin Empire.
- Magna Carta In 1215 the barons of England made King John put his seal to a charter limiting royal power.
- The Mongol advance west In the 1230s and 1240s Mongol armies swept through Rus and burst into Poland and Hungary. In the game, too, the Khan's envoys appear at the eastern edge of the map demanding submission.
- The Fall of Acre In 1291 the last crusader stronghold in the Holy Land fell.
- The Hundred Years' War and the Black Death The 14th century brings the long war between England and France, along with the Black Death, which carried off more than a third of Europe's population.
How to play this era
With the land divided into small pieces, there is great pleasure in starting with a little county and absorbing your neighbours one by one until it grows into a duchy and then a kingdom. But neglect to keep an eye on the pope and the great lords, and you will soon find yourself surrounded by a grand coalition.
Major powers
| Power | In the game |
|---|---|
| Holy Roman Empire | One name, but dozens of princely states within. The tug-of-war between emperor, princes and pope never ends. |
| England · France | Rivals who fight generation after generation over the Angevin lands on the Continent. |
| Almohad Caliphate | An Islamic power ruling North Africa and southern Iberia. The foe of the Reconquista. |
| Byzantium and the Sultanate of Rum | A weakened Eastern Roman Empire and a Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia. |
| Principalities of Rus | Novgorod, Vladimir, Kiev and Chernigov. They fight one another until the Mongols arrive. |
Life in that age
Most people farmed on manors. Peasants worked the lord's land and paid tithes, receiving protection in return. In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, towns grew rapidly, craft guilds and merchants became a new force, and towns won charters of self-government from kings and lords. The game's charter, guild and market events follow this trend.
Knights were professional warriors equipped with horse and armour, and the tournament was both training for real battle and a stage for advancement. As universities arose in Bologna, Paris and Oxford, learning too opened a path into the Church or the court. Pilgrimage was an act of faith and at the same time a journey to see the wider world; Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem were the great destinations.